Dec 11
3
No more Sin
The Lord Jesus Christ was touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet without sin. In a similar way, the child of God, who has a new nature, created in the likeness of Christ, is touched with the feeling of immortality. He is touched with the feeling (desires of the heart) for holiness and righteousness . . . yet without perfection. There is a new man inside, who is perfectly holy, yet there is an old man that keeps us in our imperfect state, subject to ( but not under the dominion of) sin. The child of God will not be perfected until He leaves this body of death. His whole being, body, soul and spirit, will not be perfected until he is clothed with immortality. Just as Christ assumed His glorified body and was no longer subject to infirmities, so shall we be clothed with our glorified bodies. What a day that shall be! No more sin!! Paul Mahan.
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Is there any real hope for Real Sinners?
Is there any real hope for real sinners? I know that men and women who think of themselves as good moral people have no problem in this matter. They think they are okay. They look upon their good works, their religious devotion, and their moral integrity with much approval. In their proud self-righteousness they presume that God owes them something and that he will accept them. They are highly offended when they are told by a plain spoken preacher that they are sinners and that their supposed righteous deeds are filthy rags, abominable in the sight of God. I am not speaking to you of good people”.
I am speaking to you men and women who know yourselves to be guilty sinners before a holy God. You have no good deeds to boast of. Your life is as vile as your heart. You are an outcast of society. Both your family and friends avoid your company. You are so abominably evil that you can hardly endure living with yourself. You know that you are guilty before a holy God. You know that if you had your just reward from him, you would be in hell. Is there any real hope for real sinners like you and me?
I know that we have no hope in ourselves. We have all tried religious decisions and moral reformation. But these things cannot atone for our sins. These things cannot silence our guilty consciences. Preachers tell us to join the church, or start living right, or start serving the Lord. You may have tried it all. But the fact remains that you cannot do anything that God will accept. You may have joined the church and become religious, but your conscience still torments you. You have no peace with God. Is there any real hope for real sinners?
Yes, blessed be God, there is real hope for real sinners like us! That Hope is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He came to this earth to be the Friend of sinners. He came to be the sinner’s Substitute before God. As the Substitute for sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ lived in this world accomplishing a perfect righteousness, the only righteousness which God will accept. Then he willingly laid down his life in the place of sinners at Calvary. As the Substitute for guilty sinners the Son of God took our sins upon himself, and in his death he paid the penalty due unto us. Now it is promised that all who believe on him shall be saved and have everlasting life. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36). That includes both you and me. If we, as guilty sinners, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as our only Savior, our only Righteousness, and our only Pardon for sin, we shall be saved!
Jesus Christ is the only One who gives real hope to real sinners. I trust him. Most gladly do I trust Christ. I have no righteousness but his righteousness. I have no cleansing from sin but his blood. I have no pardon but his pardon. I have no acceptance before God but Christ. I have nothing to plead before God but this, Jesus Christ lived and died for me. Though I am a real sinner like you, I have a REAL HOPE BEFORE GOD. My Hope is Jesus Christ the Lord. And HE GIVES HE REAL PEACE BEFORE GOD. Will you trust Christ alone? THERE IS REAL HOPE FOR REAL SINNERS IN CHRIST. Don Fortner.
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Smokin’,Drinkin’,and Cussin’
People love to be preached to about their sins and told to quit smoking, drinking, cussing, and to be kind to their neighbor, tithe, and go to church, etc. It’s because when they are able to manage these outward things, they can feel good about themselves. If I am only a sinner because I do bad things, then there is hope of reformation. Behavior, men believe, can be improved, or at least my good deeds can outweigh my bad (in my own opinion or that of other men). Even this is impossible, since what we consider good deeds are filthy rags to God, but at least men can fool themselves in this way.
If, however, sin is my very nature, then no matter how nice I am to my neighbor, no matter how perfect my church attendance, no matter, how much I put in the plate or avoid the vices of life, I am repulsive, unacceptable, undone, filthy, stinking, and despicable in God’s sight. Men hate this truth of a sin nature, because there is nothing they can do about it. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” Jer. 13:23 This truth shuts men up entirely too sovereign mercy in the sin-atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
A well-behaved maggot is not welcome in my bosom for all his virtues, nor is a well-behaved sinner (even if there were such a thing) fit company for God Almighty. We must be utterly changed, “born again,” given a new nature and even a deranged sinner cannot convince himself that this is something he can do. That is why this doctrine is so vehemently rejected. We have one hope. MERCY! MERCY! MERCY!
“Lord, now indeed I find,
Thy power and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
and melt the heart of stone.”
Chris Cunningham
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Romans 6:14
For sin shall not have dominion over you…
It has dominion over God’s people in a state of unregeneracy: and after conversion it is still in them, and has great power oftentimes to hinder that which is good, and to effect that which is evil; it entices and ensnares, and brings into captivity, and seems as though it would regain its dominion, and reign again, but it shall not. This is not a precept, exhortation, or admonition, as before, though some read it as such, “let not sin have dominion over you”; nor does it express merely what ought not to be, but what cannot, and shall not be; it is an absolute promise, that sin shall not have the dominion over believers; and respects not acts of sin, but the principle of sin; and means not its damning power, though that is took away, but its tyrannical, governing power: “it shall not lord it over you”, as the words may be rendered; for in regeneration, sin is dethroned; Christ enters as Lord, and continues to be so; saints are in another kingdom, the kingdom of Christ and grace; could sin reign again over them, they might be lost and perish, which they never can: now this is a noble argument why saints should use their members as weapons of righteousness for God and against sin; since they are sure of being conquerors, and are secure from the tyrannical government of sin over them. John Gill.
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SANCTIFICATION BY CHRIST
When the self-righteous Pharisee is made to admit that he can not use the law to justify himself, he will turn to the law to sanctify himself. Up till now Paul has been talking about justification, the work of grace for sinners, now Paul begins talking about sanctification, the work of God’s grace in those whom he reconciled to himself in Christ.
Paul knew the hearts of the unregenerate. The Spirit moves Paul to ask the question that the self-seeking man always asks when he hears the gospel of Christ.
Romans 6: 1: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Paul’s answer begins our message for today.
Romans 6: 2: God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Believers are not dead to sins influence, to its presence, or to its effects. But we are dead to the guilt and condemnation of sin.
We are also dead to the reign of sin over us as a master. This is what Paul develops in this chapter. Christ reigns in those born of God through the Spirit. Sin shall not have dominion over you. Paul’s answer, “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” is not to be attributed to the believer’s strength but must be attributed to Christ who reigns in us through righteousness unto eternal life.
In Ex 28:36 the high priest went in to make atonement just as Christ went in and fully satisfied–propitiated–God for his people. But the high priest also wore a gold plate engraved with “HOLINESS TO THE LORD.” Christ Jesus is our righteousness and our sanctification. He is our Justifier and our Sanctifier. Christ the Power and Wisdom of God is the wisdom of life and the power of our newness of life. Being united to Christ through faith, we look no where else for sanctification. Mortification of the deeds of the flesh, walking in newness of life, is looking no where else but to Christ our Holiness.
Some seem to offset grace with “following after holiness.” Be sure it is Christ you are looking to and not your “following after.” We do not look to Christ for justification then to the flesh for sanctification. Christ is All and in All.
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FREE AT LAST
Our freedom from slavery under sin is as sure as our justification from sin because it is by Christ Jesus and not us.
Romans 6: 4: Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5: For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7: For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8: Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10: For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11: Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Just as Christ dies no more, in the new creation, the believer is dying no more. Though our outward man perishes daily our inward man is renewed day-by-day. Death hath no more dominion over Christ and so death has no power over you. It is all because Christ died unto sin. By that one offering he put the guilt and condemnation of sin away. But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God therefore, likewise, reckon yourselves to be dead INDEED unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Believer, does it always seem to you that sin’s reign is broken over you? Notice that the assurance given here is not based on you but it is based on what Christ has done for you. Therefore, no matter how it appears unto, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Clay Curtis (extract from Reckoned Dead unto Sin, Alive unto God)